


Darkness Haloed in Your Eyes

by Gothams_Only_Wolf



Series: An Ode to the Left Hand of Ifrit [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Barret Month 2020, Canon Compliant, Clarret/Boud if you squint extra hard, Gen, POV Barret Wallace, Spoilers, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothams_Only_Wolf/pseuds/Gothams_Only_Wolf
Summary: Barret loses and lives, this time for the future, whatever it might bring.CONTAINS REMAKE SPOILERS
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Barret Wallace, Barret Wallace & Marlene Wallace, Biggs & Jessie & Wedge (Compilation of FFVII), Cloud Strife & Barret Wallace, Red XIII | Nanaki & Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart & Barret Wallace
Series: An Ode to the Left Hand of Ifrit [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936090
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	Darkness Haloed in Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Lookit, I'm on time! 
> 
> Enjoy~

* * *

ShinRa generally fucked up the Planet, what with the focus on sucking her dry of Mako. 

He figured he was one of the few to survive the brunt of ShinRa's messes. 

His thinking changed when a certain blond (ex) SOLDIER set foot in Seventh Heaven.

* * *

A merc? Yeah. 

Expensive? Oh hell yeah. 

Worth it? Barret was still trying to figure that one out. 

It helped that even though Jessie had been flirting him right up, the man seemed reluctant to engage. 

Wedge was starry-eyed but Strife had dissuaded that. 

Biggs thought he was reserved but well suited if he came by Tifa's recommendation.

He leaned on Tifa but it was more close friends than anything else; bit like him and Dyne, once upon a time. 

Strife had completed his end of the deal but the pain he'd shown—unintentionally—made Barret sympathize with the man. 

The way he took in the world, the way he fired back with his own sarcastic quips made him not exactly AVALANCHE material but there was just something about him. 

Quiet but when he spoke, people listened; bragged about his abilities but sure as shit could back it up; Cloud Strife was one hell of an enigma.

* * *

Cloud fell.

Barret knew that no normal person could survive that fall, let alone a SOLDIER First Class. 

Tifa's grief was palatable, her tears pouring anew for someone she'd just gotten back. 

Barret enfolded her in a hug, let her cry it out and then she sniffed sharply. 

"Let's find out how they knew we were there." 

"... Tifa," he reached out and she snarled. 

"No. I already lost him once. The moon knows my grief well enough. Let's get the bastards who got Cloud."

* * *

Somewhere, in the space between it all, Strife had become Cloud. 

Barret couldn't pinpoint it but he thought it might've been when Cloud told Barret that Marlene was safe. He'd prioritized Marlene— even while fighting those ShinRa pukes, taking hits that would've killed a regular person. 

When Tifa cried against Cloud's shoulder in the distance, Barret nearly looked away. 

The glowing blue gaze held his even as Cloud comforted his best friend. 

Wolves, Barret thought absently, Cloud and Tifa. The Nibel pack of two, facing off against the world. 

Tifa stayed there for a long time, enough that Cloud scooped her up and took her up to bed. 

He was back out in under ten minutes, as far as Barret could tell, glancing up to give Barret an inscrutable look. 

"... Did you want one too?" 

"Want what?" 

"A hug." The flat way he offered was tempered by Barret's new understanding of the man next to him. 

"Only if you're offering," he snorted, crossing his gunarm over his left. "Thanks for what you did for Tifa." 

"She needed it. Too much stress needs a release valve at some point. Plenty of SOLDIERs break down after the mission." He rattled off, paused and said, "Think I needed to remind myself that I'm a person too, not just a SOLDIER. Think you're too good and before long you've got more than one Sephiroth." 

"Yeah?" 

"Hn, wasn't just Sephiroth that went MIA, there were a few others too. So the rest of us learned to lean on one another." came the reluctant response. 

"You're tellin' me that ShinRa treated everyone like shit, not just us outsiders?" 

"They didn't want that getting out but," here Cloud prodded at the grass patch with his scuffed boot, "ShinRa's as toxic inside as it is from the outside. Like school all over again, except so much worse; Infantry and Guards get treated like shit, civilians land somewhere above them, SOLDIERs land just under the Executives. Only good one is Urban Development, from what I remember. Never treated anyone crappy, even when they deserved it." 

"Good thing you threw in your lot with us then?" He prodded. 

"You're kidding right? I'm a mercenary." The tiny hint of a smile made Barret laugh, probably for the first time since he figured Marlene was safe as houses. 

"Don't go getting your high-stepping boots on there Stamp," he teased. 

"Way I see it, you owe me, hmm, little over five grand at this point?" Cloud grinned, nudging his good side. 

"I'll show you five grand, merc-" 

He flexed, those damning blue eyes flicked to his muscles and they cracked up before shushing one another, eyes crinkling at the corners as they silently laughed themselves sick.

* * *

Barret's heart lodged in his throat, when the walkway collapsed under Cloud. 

"Cloud!" 

Sephiroth gave them all an extra creepy look and that was when Barret noticed Red was missing too. 

Well shit.

* * *

Hojo was a twisted piece of work, that was for sure. He could see where Cloud hated the... piece of dragon dung. 

Barret wouldn't call him human, though he'd seen his fair share of cruelty from people, because this one thought people were _subjects_ and that he couldn't forgive. 

He worked with Red and Cloud to reunite with the girls but the tunnel, that was where he knew Cloud was one of them. 

It somehow felt like they were missing people, which was _ridiculous, really_ and yet he knew it was true. 

It was the same intuition that had guided him through the Corel mines, through the wreckage of Corel and all the way on a feeling to Cosmo Canyon. 

Barret would follow Cloud to the bowels of either Hel if he asked it.

* * *

He hadn't counted on Cloud _actually asking to follow him and Aerith into Hel_ but he guessed that was where they were at—

Marlene'd _**better**_ be safe.

* * *

Barret never told a soul, not once, but he'd seen... 

He'd seen more than one future when they'd fought the Aribiters of Fate.

One where they all fought together against Sephiroth multiple times. 

One where he died in Corel and the crew had been lead by Dyne. 

One where he was in Aerith's place— Barret hated that one on principle because it didn't give Aerith a choice. 

The last one had been where he and Cloud were raising Marlene and a cute little kid named Denzel, Tifa watching fondly from the background with Aerith laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, complain, ect.


End file.
